Beer brewing is the delicate and dedicated blending of art and science. Finding the perfect balance of grains, hops, malt, adding just the right flavoring agents, boiling for exactly enough time to release the tannins, starches, humic acids from you wort, activating enzymes to break down those starches, forging the perfect mash from the ether of sobriety to give birth to that most glorious pint, these are skills that take a lifetime to master. Perfect beer is meticulously planned and carefully crafted.

Screw that.

You’re six days into a 2 month expedition, and if you were lucky enough to not be on a dry ship, it’s de facto dry by now anyway. You’re eying the ethanol stores, the crew is eying each other, and all hell will break loose if y’all don’t get some sweet water soon. This is no time for artistry.

This is not, as a rule, a terribly good beer (though, with a good brewmaster on board, it can be). This is a beer to pass the time and ease the pain of life at sea. I can guarantee that if you are careful, it will be at least as good as the cheapest commercial alternative.

Click through to read the rest of the article and discover how you, too, can brew beer with a coffee maker.

“I thought you might be interested in a new ‘feature’ of the latest Android phone. Officially released tomorrow October 6, some T-mobile stores began selling the HTC G2 yesterday. Within 24 hours, users have discovered that the phone has built-in hardware that restricts what software a device owner might wish to install. Specifically, one of the microchips embedded into the G2 prevents device owners from making permanent changes to the Android operating system, re-installing the original firmware.”

I am now royally pissed. I have just spent/wasted an hour trying to re / install the software to enable me to get photos off my mobile – I took three pics last night, watching Pink, and wanted to add them to the Pink Post. But no – the disc wouldn’t read, the software installer didn’t work, then it couldn’t tell which phone I had – much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair.

Annoyingly, it means I will have to wait until Husband or Youngest comes home and helps. How fucking irritating is that – I hate it when I fall into the Helpless Woman category, specially when it comes to technical stuff.